Revenge Porn Magnate Gets Hit With $250,000 Defamation Claim

from the bam dept

While we've had a few stories about the "revenge porn" website "IsAnybodyDown," that site was really just a copycat of one of the most popular "revenge porn" websites, called "Is Anyone Up." Back in 2011, On The Media did an interview with Hunter Moore, the creator of Is Anyone Up, in which you learn what a swell human being he is (i.e., not at all). A few months later, however, Moore shut down the site and claimed he was turning over a new leaf. It later came out that he actually sold the domain (but not the content of the site) to a company called ViaView, which ran the anti-bullying website Bullyville. ViaView's President, James McGibney, had apparently been talking to Moore for a while, trying to get him to shut down the site. After buying the domain, McGibney had traffic routed to the Bullyville site.

Months later, for unclear reasons, Moore started going after McGibney and Bullyville online, claiming that McGibney was a pedophile, had failed to report child porn images, and was guilty of a variety of other charges. He also stated, strongly, that he intended to have sex with McGibney's wife. In response, McGibney sued Moore for defamation, represented by Marc Randazza, who has made it something of a personal mission to go after "revenge porn" sites (in case you're unaware, such sites solicit naked photos of people, often from ex-lovers, and then post them online, sometimes with contact info).

Moore failed to officially respond to the lawsuit, despite being served and apparently making it clear he was aware of the lawsuit on Twitter. In response, the judge ruled in favor of McGibney on default judgment, and alsoordered Moore to pay $250,000 in damages, along with legal fees. Of course, getting Moore to actually pay may be difficult, but Randazza has a history of going after the assets of those who refuse to pay out in such cases.